I love trees. All trees: sturdy oaks, graceful willows, flowering cherries, tall pines and palm trees silhouetted against a moonlit sky.
       An article in The Naples Daily News last week discussed a recent study finding "Leafy, tree-lined streets...might be good for your health." The study showed that adding just ten trees to a city street could make the people who lived there feel seven years younger. They took the respondents ages, income levels, and current living conditions, and the availability of health care into consideration.  
       Although scientists recognize a strong correlation between living on a tree-lined street and our health, the researchers don't know why it is so. Maybe:

•        The ability of trees to clean pollutants out of the air?
  
•        Their addition of oxygen for us to breathe?
  
•        Their beautiful contribution to neighborhoods?
  
•        All three?

       So I feel very lucky to live on a tree-lined street in a city designated as a "Tree City, USA." I'll continue to hug my trees, watch for birds landing in their branches and feel nourished.
       If you love today's quote from Joyce Kilmer's poem too, you can find the whole text at The Poetry Foundation's website:
               http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/1947

What makes you feel beautiful and loved?

                                                                   --stay curious!

                               A [planet's] a [planet] no matter how small. 
                                                                  from Horton Hears a Who
                                                   by Theodore Geisel writing as Dr. Seuss. 
  
   I have learned that when I hear a small voice that no one else hears, it is usually coming from my heart.
       We saw true and real pictures this week of Pluto, a small planet, too small to see with our unaided human eyes. It took a space-craft the size of a baby grand piano traveling nine and a half years to get there. But just because it is very small, for a planet, and very far away, doesn't mean it is not true or real or important.
       Horton can see the Who of Whoville because he has extra-special senses of hearing and sight. I don't have his extra-special senses, but when I hear a voice from my heart, I know it is true and real, even if no one else can hear it.
       What do you know that is true?
                                                                 --stay curious!

      Sometimes I do things I think I won't like or go places when I think I'd rather stay home. Sometimes I'm surprised by an unexpectedly beautiful sunset or birdsong, or an unusually interesting conversation.
       Today is the last day for the running of the bulls at Pamplona, Spain. Bulls chase runners for 825 meters down an alley from the bull corral to the arena where they will fight. It is dangerous, even to watch. 
       This put me in mind of Ferdinand, a gentle but misunderstood bull. He did not like to fight. He did not like to show off about how strong he was. When he was stung by a bee, all the other bulls thought he was fierce. He was not. He jumped around because he was in pain.
       Ferdinand knew what he was about. He had a kind mother who worried about him, but also trusted that he could take care of himself.
I'm like Ferdinand with a twist. Like him, I know what I like. Unlike him, I try new things. Sometimes I am happily surprised.
       What new thing, idea, food, place will you try?
                                                                  --stay curious!
       
          

        I can sing the alphabet backwards. Not everyone knows that about me.
       A blog I like to read is called "Writing for Kids (While Raising Them)" by Tara Lazar. She recently interviewed Maria Gianferrari whose first book, Penny & Jelly: The School Show, is being published today. Tara's question for Maria, "What is your hidden talent?" got me thinking. We all have talents. Sometimes, like Wilber, who didn't know he was good at being a friend, we hide those talents even from ourselves.
       
       What is your hidden talent?
                                                                  --Stay curious!